Alison Krauss

Iâ€™ve teamed up with fellow music critic Shay Quillen to review some of the new holiday CDs for the season. Hope one of these jingles just right for you.

â€œSongs of Joy & Peace,â€ Yo-Yo Ma and Friends (Sony)
Each year, there is one holiday offering that seems destined to outlive the season and become a cherished classic. For 2008, our money is on Yo-Yo Maâ€™s â€œSongs of Joy & Peace.â€ This terrific 22-song set features the superstar cellist collaborating with some mighty talented â€œFriends,â€ including singer-songwriter James Taylor, ukulele wizard Jake Shimabukuro, vocalist-fiddler Alison Krauss, bass guru Edgar Meyer and pianist-vocalist Diana Krall.Continue Reading →

The seventh edition of the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival kicked off Friday in Golden Gate Park with an afternoon of entertainment topped by a performance by the remarkable band that prompted Robert Plant to tell Led Zeppelin and zillions of dollars to take a hike. The former Led Zep lead singer recently announced that he won’t be touring with the band anytime soon — and considering that the guys are in their 60s now, probably ever. But why rehash oldies with Jimmy Page when you can create something new with Buddy Miller every night? So Robert Plant & Alison Krauss will continue with producer-guitarist T Bone Burnett as a touring unit and a recording unit for the forseeable future (Marian Leighton, one of the founders of Rounder Records, confirmed that another RP&AK CD was in the works). Continue Reading →

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have just announced additional fall
dates for their wildly successful ‘Raising Sand’ tour. With an all-star
band led by producer T Bone Burnett, the Grammy winning duo has
crisscrossed North America and Europe performing songs from their
platinum selling ‘Raising Sand’ (Rounder Records) collaboration.

The current Robert Plant-Alison Krauss trek is the most heavily hyped Americana tour since the “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” outing. Indeed, it might be the one and only hyped (to any degree) Americana tour since “O Brother.”

That’s part of the reason why a capacity crowd of 8,500 turned out to see Plant/Krauss on Friday night (June 27) at the UC Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Many folks came to hear the wonderful songs on the pair’s stunning “Raising Sand” CD from last year. Others, I suspect, went to the Greek because they are fans of Plant’s old band (yup, I wasn’t the only guy wearing a Led Zep t-shirt) or admirers of Krauss’ work (which should include basically everyone).

It turned out to be a wonderful night of Americana music. And Americana is really the only way to describe the music. The sound couldn’t be called blues, folk, pop, rock or country, yet it contained all of those styles. Credit that to the great T Bone Burnett, who produced “Raising Sands” and was a member of the touring band.Continue Reading →

Robert Plant, Alison Krauss
Friday, Juned 27
â€œRaising Sandâ€ stands as one of the most unlikely collaborations in recent music history. The 2007 album pairs heavy metal titan Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin fame) and bluegrass queen Alison Krauss. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, the album turned out to be one of the best reviewed discs in many a moon. Credit that, in large part, to T Bone Burnett, the veteran producer who has ranks as nothing short of a mastermind/genius (take your pick). Fans canâ€™t wait to hear how the Plant/Krauss concept works in concert. 8 p.m., U.C. Greek Theatre, Gayley Road and Stadium Rim Way, Berkeley, $39.50-$89.50, 510-625-TIXS, 925-685-TIXS or 415-421-TIXS, www.apeconcerts.com.

Andrea McArdle
Friday-Saturday, Monday, June 27-28, 30
Andrea McArdle is best known for having played the title role in the 1977 production of â€œAnnie,â€ a turn that garnered her a Tony Award nomination. Yet, the vocalist has also appeared in such Broadway productions as â€œStarlight Expressâ€ and â€œBeauty and the Beastâ€ as well as regularly headlined at major nightclubs and cabarets across the country. (She also appears as part of the 42nd Street Moon fundraising gala at the Alcazar on June 30.) 8 p.m., the Rrazz Room, Hotel Nikko San Francisco, 222 Mason St., $40, 866-468-3399, www.therrazzroom.com.

(In honor of the Plant/Krauss show, Shay Quillen of the Mercury News and I cooked up this cool feature on other odd couples in pop music history:)

While Englishman Robert Plant was finishing his reign with the biggest, baddest rock band on the planet, a preteen Alison Krauss was hitting fiddle contests in Illinois.

Who would have dreamed a quarter-century later, the once (and future?) Led Zeppelin frontman would team up with that kid, now a sweet-singing bluegrass star?

The combo could have clashed, but instead “”Raising Sand” — helmed by “”O Brother” musical maestro T Bone Burnett — turned out to be a masterpiece of moody Americana, landing on multiple year-end Top 10 lists and going platinum. The subsequent tour, which hits the Greek Theatre in Berkeley on June 27, has done boffo business and earned rave reviews from Belgium to Bonnaroo.

But for every musical Reese’s cup, there’s another oddball pairing that jibes like sugar and soup. So let’s take a moment now to look back at some previous musical mismatches — good, bad and utterly ridiculous.Continue Reading →

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, whose critically-lauded, Gold album ‘Raising Sand’ continues to be a top-seller worldwide, have confirmed an additional 17 North American tour dates through July 1, it was announced today. Tickets for the newly announced shows will begin going on sale March 3rd (details below).

Recipients of the 2007 Grammy award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, for the track “Gone Gone Gone (Done Moved On)”, Plant and Krauss – along with ‘Raising Sand’ producer and band leader T Bone Burnett – are creating a show that will feature songs from their collaborative release, as well as from the artists’ extensive career discographies.

Band members for the tour include Jay Bellerose (drums) and Dennis Crouch (bass) – both of whom played on ‘Raising Sand’ – as well as Buddy Miller (guitar) and Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin and other instruments). Burnett will play guitar and 6-string bass, as well as perform several songs.

As previously announced, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss kick-off their Raising Sand World Tour in April with a brief run of shows that includes an April 25 performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. They follow those dates with eleven shows in Europe and the UK that conclude with a performance at Wembley Arena on May 22.

Ticket information for all of the Raising Sand Tour dates is available on the artist’s websites: robertplantalisonkrauss.com, robertplant.com, alisonkrauss.com, and tboneburnett.com.